Issues gathers thematic collections of essays, reflections, interviews, and reports exploring contemporary challenges to democracy, human rights, political culture, and public life from diverse international perspectives.
Issues gathers thematic collections of essays, reflections, interviews, and reports exploring contemporary challenges to democracy, human rights, political culture, and public life from diverse international perspectives.
On the morning after our catastrophic elections in 2016, I wrote an open letter to a Polish friend: “We have to acknowledge that an enormous part of the American electorate wanted this fascist. I’ve never been especially patriotic, I’ve always felt more like a rootless cosmopolitan, but these elections have broken my heart.” At the time, eight years ago, many people felt that the description “fascist” was overly …
Following the 2023 general and 2024 local elections, the election frenzy in Turkey has subsided, with the next national decision point slated for 2028, when President Erdoğan’s current term will expire. Over more than two decades, Erdoğan’s rule has further weakened Turkey’s already fragile and largely undemocratic institutions. Through strategic institutional gerrymandering, Erdoğan has consolidated his power, reshaping political and legal systems to ensure his dominance. While Turkey’s …
Growing up in France, I remember Jean-Marie Le Pen’s National Front branded as nothing short of an extreme right-wing party. It was crass: the epitome of racism, xenophobia, antisemitism, and outright stupidity. It was dubbed the party of the uneducated working class, looked down upon by a condescending privileged class. This elite could afford to pontificate on the white man’s burden to welcome the wretched of the earth …
The image of Palestinians is one tainted by the misrepresentations rampant throughout the media. Palestinians have long been underrepresented and misunderstood, both in the media and in policy discussions. Despite their long history of struggle, they are still oftentimes portrayed in a negative light with their actions heavily scrutinized. This is a result of the misconceptions regarding their history and their movements. These misconceptions primarily stem from a …
Israel, often referred to as the region’s “only functioning democracy,” seems to be disintegrating in front of our eyes and the eyes of the rest of the world. The Israel-Palestine conflict became a torrential storm of bullets, bombs, and horror over the past four months, attracting global attention. While the country fractures from grief, its political unity is also under increased stress. In recent weeks, for the first …
MAJA HORELKINA, 39 years old, IT specialist, Przemyśl (Poland) If the war ended today, I would go to Kyiv. My family and friends are there. I would hug them all. I wouldn’t be afraid to let my daughter, Yevheniya, go there either, who, despite the war, has not given up her dream of opening a café in Kyiv. A backpack has been accompanying Maja since 2014. That’s when …
War seen in person looks less terrible than on television. However, when I notice that I am becoming less sensitive and danger stops arousing fear in me, I know that it is time to go home and decompress. MAREK KĘSKRAWIEC: In your texts about the war in Ukraine, you rarely share your own thoughts, you don’t make yourself the star, you give voice to the protagonists. This …
In Bakhmut, medics’ vehicles wait hidden under thick layers of earth and concrete. Artillery fire almost never ceases and every bit of the city is within its reach. They come by minibus. A piece of paper with the number “300” stuck to the window means that they are transporting the wounded. They stop. The two medics do not get out. Fear and confusion are painted on their …
After months of fighting for the city, the few inhabitants of Bakhmut are struggling to survive—without water, electricity or gas, and with winter temperatures. The street is dead. Its landscape is made up of concrete apartment blocks, rubble from hit buildings, broken glass and remnants of rockets. And the corpse of a dog covered with frozen snow, from under which you can see a dead eye, a …
Military medics rescue wounded soldiers at the front every day. The lives of the wounded depend on how quickly it is possible to provide first aid and transport them to a hospital in the rear. The light from the country house does not break through to the street, which is plunged into darkness of night. Tightly covered windows do not allow sight of what is inside the …
